BRODBECK: Transit nearly doubles spending on supervisor positions

Winnipeg Transit has nearly doubled how much it spends on supervisors over past six years.

According to figures obtained by the Winnipeg Sun, Transit is spending an estimated $5.5 million on 58 full-time supervisor positions in 2018. That’s up from the $2.8 million Transit spent on 35 supervisor positions in 2012.

Winnipeg Transit has nearly doubled the amount it spends on supervisor positions over the past six years while bus service continues to deteriorate and ridership numbers fall.

According to figures obtained by the Winnipeg Sun, Transit is spending an estimated $5.5 million on 58 full-time supervisor positions in 2018. That’s up from the $2.8 million Transit spent on 35 supervisor positions in 2012.

It represents an average annual spending increase of 12% on supervisory positions from 2012 to 2016 and a 66% increase in the number of full-time positions during that period.

The spending increase comes at the same time Mayor Brian Bowman and city council have claimed Transit is hurting for cash due to a funding freeze from the province and that the city had no choice but to jack up bus fares by 25 cents this year.

Transit says the increase in supervisor positions was largely to improve safety on buses.

“We have increased our supervisor complement over the years for safety reasons, and due to the number of special events taking place in the city,” Transit spokesperson Alissa Clark said in an email statement. “We have also added dispatch supervisors to work in our Brandon and North garages.”

Clark says supervisors are highly-trained former bus operators who are well suited to provide support to bus operators.

“They are a strong presence on-street and know the ins and outs of the transit system,” she said. “They act as enforcement officers for the Public Transit By-law, and assist passengers with transit-related information.”

Maybe. But many bus drivers who have contacted the Winnipeg Sun say supervisors are not well suited to provide safety support for operators because their main job is still to “manage” operations, not focus on bus safety.

Either way, it seems pretty top-heavy, especially when service has deteriorated in recent years, including an increase in the percentage of buses running late. Over 18% of buses were running late in 2017, up from 7.3% in 2009. In the meantime, ridership has dropped from 49.9 million rides in 2014 to 48.1 million last year.

Also, these supervisor positions are expensive. According to the information provided by Transit, the 58 supervisors on staff make an average of $94,183 each. Of those 58, 24 are Transit inspectors, making just over $2.5 million collectively, or $106,120 each.

And are buses really any safer today than they were in 2012? It doesn’t appear so if you listen to the drivers.

What Transit needs more than anything is a full audit of its operations and an assessment of its human resources and administration. Transit has had significant funding increases from the province and from the city’s general revenues over the past decade and they don’t have much to show for it. Fewer people are taking the bus because service has deteriorated, buses are more congested and only three of four buses are now running on time.

Transit has spent a great deal of time and resources planning and implementing Bus Rapid Transit, which has done nothing to increase ridership. And they continue to expend much of their energy on a new proposed eastern BRT corridor, even though they have no estimated travel times or reliability data to demonstrate that a proposed second corridor would increase ridership. In the meantime, they’ve ignored their core bus service and allowed it to deteriorate.

Transit is not underfunded. They just need to spend their money more wisely and focus on improving core bus service, including increasing the frequency of buses and improving scheduling.

Obviously nearly doubling the amount they spend on supervisors over a six-year period has not helped things at Winnipeg Transit.

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